


Devious Ruling

by SkySkySkylar



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 18:49:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkySkySkylar/pseuds/SkySkySkylar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jon cares, even if it appears that he doesn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devious Ruling

**Author's Note:**

> My first fic ever! Malorie's Peak Prompt #90: Verisimilitude.

When it came down to it, the conservatives thought, King Jonathon IV was not actually that bad of a King. True, he allowed that wife of his far too much freedom – the schools that had opened across the country and this new ridiculous idea for a group called the Queen’s Riders were testament to that – but he himself seemed rather fair and balanced. When plans for the Queen’s Riders were announced earlier that day, he certainly hadn’t seemed invested in the idea. In fact, he didn’t seem to like it at all. Oh well, thought the conservatives. A King is only human after all. If this one’s greatest flaw is that he lets his wife have her pet projects, well, really, it could be worse.

\------------------------------------------

Queen Thayet sank onto a couch in her chambers and pulled off the light veil that lay on her hair. As her husband sat down next to her, she closed her eyes and let the silence wash over her.

“Do they think I can’t see their smirks?” she asked suddenly after a few moments.

“Does who think that, my dear?” said Jon.

Thayet opened her eyes and turned to face her husband. “You know perfectly well who I mean. All those conservatives, thinking that anything progressive we’ve done was completely my idea. Smirking at you because you’re supposedly blind with love and smirking at me because I’m a foreigner who thinks that women can rule and fight and that commoners deserve an education.”

“Who says I’m not blind with love?” Thayet kicked him. “Ouch! All right, I’ll be serious. Do they really hate you that much? And I’ve never seen those smirks.”  
Thayet sighed. “Maybe you are blind with love if you can’t see that they don’t like me. And of course you wouldn’t see the smirks. You’re the King; they wouldn’t let you see. I’m just a foreigner Queen with ridiculous ideas.”

Jon winced. “Maybe we shouldn’t present so much as your ideas if that group is so troublesome.”

“And what would that accomplish? Then they would just hate both of us, not just me. No, we agreed to present some of the reforms as my idea for a reason. We’re not going back on that just so you can spare me a few smirks.”

Jon sighed and nodded. “All right.” He stood and held out his hand. “Come to bed now? Staying up late won’t accomplish anything when there aren’t any important papers to review.”

Thayet smiled, took the offered hand, and stood. “I’d like to see the children first.”  
Standing in the doorway of the nursery, his arm around his wife and gazing at their two sleeping children, Jon couldn’t help but feel content. True, the conservatives were being subtly nasty to his wife, but Thayet was right. They would simply find different ways to be nasty if they didn’t think that he was at least mostly on their side. And this way, balancing the conservatives’ reactions against the progressive reforms and their belief that their King prized more of the conservative traditions than he actually did, he and Thayet would build a future that their children could be proud of.


End file.
